Camping

*For some reason my camping posts got split up--so the rest of this guy is down a bit further*

With all the lovely personalities of our children it was only a given that there were going to be a few tantrums or meltdowns. Justice had had enough, she was done, but she wasn't sure why she was so upset either. I asked her if I could take her picture while she was screaming and she just got more mad. Then came the click, then i asked, "Justice, do you want to see these pictures?" Like a light switch the tears and screaming stopped and she was clicking through the pictures on my phone happy as a lark. It was hilarious!

Mason just loved having everyone there busy doing different things, and right here he was thrilled that we had finally started cooking breakfast!

Easter while camping is always fun, and the kids were not disappointed that Easter baskets/bags were still hidden for them to find. I love that Taylor went from dead sleeping to running around looking for a bag, I also am very fond of her bed head look.

Brennan on the other hand was not keen on searching for anything, he was tired, he was hungry and he did not want to find ANYTHING! Then he realized chocolate was involved and decided a different attitude would serve him well.

Justice didn't need any convincing of the joy of giant chocolate bunnies, she was in it so fast, nothing else mattered!

Grandma even found a little bag for her and was thrilled to find a small electronic device, she asked. "Is this what i think it is?"

Carter replied, "Grandma it is a MP3 player, you can put music on it and then listen to it while you run."

I loved that these little children have so many gadgets to keep track of and can remember what they are all meant for.

Brennan enjoyed finding the eggs more than anyone else did, and thought he was very clever for his findings.

The man chefs were hard at work fixing delightful breakfast burritos that were heavenly on the beautiful Sunday morning.

We really just enjoyed being together as a family and not having work schedules, homework, appointments, meetings, etc. to get in our way. We were at the pond feeding ducks here, there was a little family of ducklings and the kids were starting to get angry at them when they stopped eating. We were trying to convince them that they were babies, but that was not a good enough reason.

Brennan and Justice, otherwise known as "The Justen" were always together getting into some sort of mischief. They are adorable together even when they are beating each other down to the dirt or fighting because one of them looked at the other wrong. If we were ever in doubt as to their location someone would just have to say, "Where is The Justen?" Then the whole of camp would seize to function until they were found. Which was usually when they snuck down to the pond, or found other dangerous activities to do.

This picture has another story attached to it. Brennan was fishing with his lovely stick/rod and thought he was the most clever little boy. We actually could see the fish as we threw the bread in, they would come and grab it. It was really fun and i wanted to join in rather than be the one taking the pictures. I put my phone/camera in my back pocket and was having a great time 'catching' fish with Brennan. We decided it was time to head back to camp to start our hot dog roast, at that time I heard a scream of, "NO Mason!" I flip my head around to see Mike practically diving into the water, arm fully submerged, up to his face. I thought for a second that it was our friends camera that he threw in, to my relief she told me it was not, but it was my phone. My brand new-not cheap to replace phone. Then miracle of all miracles--Mike comes out victorious with phone in hand! He still does not know how he got it, but he pulled it out and we feared the worse. We went and bought a little bag of rice from the shop at the campground, put the phone in it overnight and hoped for the best. I guess you might guess how this story ended because you are looking at the pictures that were on the phone. So after being tossed in a pond my phone is still functioning at about 99%, it just won't let me put it in sleep mode, it likes to do that on its own now. Thank you Mike for having the quick reflexes and for not giving up when your hand was fishing through nasty pond ground.

Carter turns 8!!!!

This year we gave the kids a choice between having presents or having a party with friends. Carter decided to have a party and invited a few friends to come bowling with him, eat some pizza, and just have a great time!

James, Carter, Emily, and Mimi

Carter being Carter, he really is such a special kid that has more personality than he knows what to do with sometimes. He is energetic about everything he does, he is passionate about things that normal 8 year old's wouldn't even be thinking about. He has had me join in on discussions that he has with friends about life before earth, life after, and how they feel about Jesus Christ. It is funny to me that these children are having really deep religious conversations during play time. Carter loves to be on the move, he loves Lego's, drawing, flipping, climbing, and anything else that involves moving a lot! Carter has been working so hard in school on all the things that he struggles with; reading, maths, and just anything that involves sitting for long periods of time. He has been amazing at how much he has worked and is now above his age for reading level, doing fantastic in maths and is just really a star at what it means to take our small weaknesses and push them aside to make ourselves strong. Carter we are grateful for your determined spirit and love of life.

Dad and Taylor both joined in the fun, Mike scored a 201=his best score ever, and Taylor our little bowling shark bowled a 136. She was so excited and was getting strike after strike, so hilarious.

Carter came home and opened his presents from his friends and from Mason, Taylor, and Brennan.

CARTER WE ALL LOVE YOU

Castle Rising

Castle Rising was on the way home from camping and so we decided to make a day of it and do some exploring. The kids as always love climbing castles, and this one gave them all something to climb.

Brennan took on a little bit of a rock climb and although it doesn't look like much from this angle, it was actually a very impressive climb.

Mike and Jacob were running an experiment with the kids to try and estimate the depth of this well. It was hilarious to see all of them leaning in with their little ears and guessing the feet per second that the little stones were falling.

Mike like to climb all the places that are probably not really climbing spots for the average person.

Really Mike? That's all there is to say.

Our little family--isn't so little anymore!

Camping/Easter

Over Easter weekend we went camping for the first time in about 4 years, we didn't go to far, but we did have a blast spending time with our wonderful friends and having Grandma with us as well. We didn't give her much time to suffer from jet lag as we left for camping two days after she got here. We did find a campsite that allowed fires (and we may or may not have broke a few rules to have a good fire) but it was a learning experience in the way of how the English camp. We also couldn't find it in us to not enjoy some grown-up time after we allowed the children to run themselves to tired that they finally passed out. Mike and Jacob practiced all their fire safety to transfer one fire into a neighouring firepit that people had left so that they didn't have to sit away from the heat source that night. It was April afterall, and it does still get cold at night.

Mason went right back to his squeezing the life out of Grandma game that he does everytime we are with them. This time he had his work cut out for him because Grandma was so much stronger this time around. :) I think it took him by surprise, but he found the game still just as fun.

Brennan, Justice, and Taylor having a break from moving one pile of rocks into another pile of rocks. While we are admiring the cuteness of these two little girls, it is story time. About 50 yards from the campsite was a huge mound of dirt, which we called, "the mountain" while we were there. The kids loved it so much they spent the majority of the time sliding down the dirt hill and then climbing back up. They were careful to avoid the stinging nettles after each one of them had a little sting of different degrees of severity. While on this mountain we could hear laughing, playing, screams of joy, and it was great to see them having such a great time. I had to go to the loo and was promptly making my way across the camp towards the toilets when I looked over and saw Taylor standing proudly yelling, "Mom, look was we have, he is so cute!!"
I turn, focus my eyes just enough to see that my daughter is holding by the ears a dead rabbit. I yelled for her to put it down, no longer concerned with my needs that needed to be met. Asked why on earth she would be holding a dead rabbit and told her we needed to go scrub our hands and clean up. I also took the time to ask who else had been playing with the rabbit--only answer was that Justice had also been playing with the rabbit. So we decided to take all the children, for safety and concern of diseases and such. When we asked about what they were doing with the rabbit, or if they had just found it they told us a lovely story.
Taylor said, "Mom, we were letting the rabbit slide down our hill, then we would carry him back up and help him slide down again." Really!?! I have no words at that point, only pure and udder amazement that these two little girls were having such a grand time with a rabbit carcass.

Colchester Zoo

Now that I think about it, we actually went to the zoo before Grandma came, but with this much blogging to catch up on there are bound to be some errors in time line.

The kids were in their end of term/Easter holidays break and we went to the Colchester Zoo to spend the day with some friends. It was really busy, so it was difficult to enjoy the zoo to its fullest. However, the kids enjoyed themselves so much that our friends little girl went and left to go exploring on her own. After a half hour and mobile phones usage with zoo employees(technology is fabulous sometimes) we found little Gwen and all was well with the world again.

Grandma is here!

Despite the tragic face on Brennan who had to get up at 5 am to go get Grandma we were all so excited to go get her at the airport. It was a long day for everyone--especially Grandma with all the travelling, but it was so good to have a visitor amongst us again!

Grandma and Taylor, Taylor had been asking when Grandma would be to our house for about a month before hand. She was so excited to give Grandma a "soft hug" because she was saving her tight hug for Grandpa, he after all is stronger than Grandma. Those would be Taylor's words--not mine :) She was cracking me up with all her preparations down to how she would hug them.

We all decided to drop by the base to grab a few things, see Mike and have some lunch at the bowling alley. We did have to try and keep Grandma awake after all.

Weekend fun.

What is the point of having some Honey Maid, Marshmellows, and different varieties of chocolate if you don't join those forces and make delicious s'mores? Mason obviously LOVES the wonderful pleasure that is a warm roasted s'more.

After the children had their fill..AKA...cut off from having more. The men decided they were going to do a few experiments because we had ran out of crackers. The marshmellow and chocolate treats were quite fabulous as well.

We decided the best way to have Brennan at the store with us was to just put him in the bag and carry him through. Actually, we were bored.

Way back in march :)

Another missionary headed home and in this case two. Elder Ashby and Elder Pulotu both served here and came on a quick trip to visit and say good-bye as they are headed home from their service here in England. Both of these fabulous young men gave our family fabulous service and became dear friends. We are always grateful for the wonderful missionaries who we get to meet through all these years.

Cookery Club

Carter has learned how to flip pancakes, mix, stir, follow a recipe and has really enjoyed himself. He had a great time during this club for school, he would stay after on Thursday and always brought home a fabulous creation. I think that there were certain benefits to this club for the whole family.

These birds nest's and eggs were super cute and super yummy!!!!! Shredded Wheat broken up, melted chocolate to coat the shredded wheat and then shape and let set. Add the chocolate eggs(if you can get the Cadbury's then I would advice it) Super cute and fun project with the kids--i might do it myself :)

A completed project

Just imagine, if you will, a plain brown pine bookshelf as a before picture. This project entered my head last year, I wanted to make my bookshelf fun. So one year later I finally did it, I love it! Mindy (my wonderful sister) donated loads of paper so that I could do this for cheap. :) It has added a lot for colour and fun to this room, and I am very pleased that I started and finished a project in one week!